DOCSLIB.ORG

The Valuation of Coins in Medieval Jewish Jurisprudence

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Valuation of Coins in Medieval Jewish Jurisprudence The Valuation of Coins in Medieval Jewish Jurisprudence BY Daniel A. Schiffman * *Department of Economics and Business Administration, College of Judea and Samaria, Ariel, Israel 44837. I thank Francois Velde for allowing me to reproduce material from his website, and for providing me with useful background information on medieval minting. I also thank Ephraim Kleiman, Dov Paris, Warren Young, Jacob Rosenberg and participants at the History of Economics Society meetings (2002) for comments and suggestions on earlier drafts. I. INTRODUCTION The corpus of Jewish legal writings contains many discussions of economic issues and ideas. Yet, aside from a small group of scholars, historians of economics have tended to ignore the texts of Jewish law. As Ephraim Kleiman (1997) points out, the sheer size and inaccessibility of the Jewish law corpus presents a major barrier. Economic ideas are scattered across a vast amount of material. The canonical text of Jewish law is the Talmud, which spans 2,700 folio pages and two million words. Hundreds of commentaries have been written on the Talmud (or parts of it). There are three major codes of Jewish Law (based on the Talmud and selected commentaries), plus commentaries on the codes and lesser known codes (based on the major codes). About one million responsa (questions and answers in Jewish law) are known to exist; these are collected in hundreds of books. 1 Today, new commentaries and responsa appear each year, in addition to multiple rabbinic journals. In order to understand these materials, the scholar must be well versed in Hebrew, Aramaic, and the reading of the Talmud. A number of articles have been written on Talmudic economics, from a history of economic thought perspective (see especially Kleiman 1973, 1987a, 1987b and Liebermann 1979). 2 However, little research has been done on the post-Talmudic medieval period (Kleiman 1997). This paper addresses the valuation of coins and related monetary ideas, in the writings of medieval Jewish jurists. It presents their approach to various monetary problems, and compares it to the approach of their Christian contemporaries. 2 From an historical perspective, the monetary ideas of Jewish jurists would seem to be of limited relevance. Two factors limited the practical applicability of their ideas. First, Jews were subjects, not rulers, and were rarely in a position to make policy. 3 Jewish jurists recognized the law of the land as binding, and accepted established business customs, unless they contradicted Jewish law. 4 Second, Jews were excluded from most occupations in medieval Europe. They made their living by lending money at interest, to both Jews and non-Jews (Nelson 1969, Shatzmiller 1990). This reality created a serious problem for Jewish jurists. On the one hand, the Bible prohibits charging interest to a fellow Israelite. 5 On the other hand, enforcing this prohibition would cost Jewish moneylenders a lot of business. To solve the problem, Jewish jurists allowed the use of non-Jews as middlemen, in order to circumvent the prohibition (Soloveitchik 1985). Yet many of the Talmudic dicta that relate to money assume that interest is prohibited. Medieval commentators and codifiers maintained this assumption, despite the fact that it rarely applied in practice. Despite their limited applicability, the texts to be studied here reveal a great deal about the medieval Jewish conception of money, and how it differed from that of contemporary non-Jewish jurists. The Romanists (jurists of Roman Law, upon which European common law was based) were wedded to the doctrine of intrinsic worth; to them, a coin was worth as much as the precious metal inside it and no more. Coins were supposed to circulate by weight, with exchange rates between coins fixed according to the ratio of precious metal content. (Canonists, or church lawyers, held a somewhat less rigid view). Jewish commentators and codifiers, on the other hand, recognized and accepted deviations from intrinsic worth; since they regarded the Talmud as their 3 canonical text, they followed its lead in deviating from intrinsic worth. Not only that, they broadened the scope of these deviations through exegesis and codification. Medieval Jewish jurists were fully aware of regimes in which money circulates by tale (count), and were willing to accommodate these regimes. However, they did not formulate a comprehensive theory that would provide the basis for circulation by tale. II. CONCEPTIONS OF MONEY IN THE MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN WORLD Thomas Sargent and Francois Velde (2002) explore “The Big Problem of Small Change.” Beginning in the 13th century, the monetary systems of Western Europe struggled with shortages of small denomination coins. The problem persisted until the 19th century, when a “standard formula” for handling small denominations was discovered. 6 Sargent and Velde pose two major questions: (a) Why did systems of commodity money with multiple denominations give rise to a problem of small change? (b) Why did it take so long to arrive at a solution? The first question is quite technical, and Sargent and Velde address it by means of a formal model. The second question receives an historical treatment. The basic story runs as follows: Two major hurdles had to be overcome before the standard formula could be implemented. First, medieval minting technology could not produce large quantities of difficult-to-counterfeit token coins, as required by the standard formula. 7 Second, medieval thinkers held, almost without exception, that coins should be valued by weight (“intrinsic worth”). Token coinage (which is almost intrinsically worthless) was completely unacceptable to medieval thinkers. How did medieval thinkers come to believe in intrinsic worth? We cannot give a complete answer, but we do know the following: 8 Although Roman Law does not dictate 4 valuation by intrinsic worth, the Romanists assumed it, and reinterpreted the Roman Law texts accordingly. According to the Corpus of Justinian, 9 a loan of coins is subject to the law of mutuum . The category of mutuum comprises all consumable commodities that are weighed, measured or counted. One who borrows such objects is legally required to return objects of the same kind and quality. 10 The Corpus does not specify whether coins are to be weighed, measured, or counted. The Romanists assumed that coins were to be weighed and measured, not counted. Based on this assumption, they ruled that one who borrowed coins must repay in metal of the same weight and fineness. For example, if the original coins were subsequently debased, the debtor could not repay in new, debased coins. This rule was formalized around 1220 in Portius Azo’s brocard (general principle), which states that “the same money or measure is owed that existed at the time of the contract.” 11 The coin-as-commodity doctrine became known as the communis opinio , a name which reflected its wide acceptance. Until 1200, the monetary system of Europe was simple—it was based almost exclusively on Charlemagne’s silver penny, which was first introduced in 800. In this environment, the Romanists used the coin-as-commodity doctrine to successfully resolve most legal issues that arose in economic life. But after 1200, the Romanists faced a far more complex reality. The monetary systems of different political domains evolved and diverged from each other. Coins issued by various principalities came to circulate side by side; coins were now issued in different denominations, were made of different metals (gold, silver, copper and alloys), and were made according to multiple purity standards. All of these parameters changed over time. The new monetary environment was closer to that which existed in Greco-Roman 5 times. It forced the Romanists to deviate from intrinsic worth, by allowing for various exceptions and qualifications. The acceptance of exceptions and qualifications made it easier for thinkers to contemplate more far-reaching deviations. At the same time, the Canonists studied the issue of coin valuation from a different perspective. They asked whether the monarch had the right to levy segniorage on the minting of coins (which is clearly a deviation from intrinsic worth). They concluded that seigniorage was acceptable and in some cases even desirable. Ultimately, the intellectual process just described led to the entirely new monetary doctrines that would emerge during the Renaissance. Due to their adherence to the doctrine of intrinsic worth, the Romanists faced difficulties in reading older sources that seemed to articulate dissenting viewpoints. They were forced to radically reinterpret texts such as this one, written by the Roman jurist Paulus (d. 235): 12 All buying and selling has its origin in exchange or barter. For in times past money was not so, nor was one thing called “merchandise” and the other “price”; rather did every man barter what was useless to him for that which was useful, according to the exigencies of his current needs; for it often happens that what one man has in plenty another lacks. But since it did not always and easily happen that when you had something which I wanted, I, for my part, had something that you were willing to accept, a material was selected which, being given a stable value ( aestimatio ) by the state, avoided the problems of barter by providing an equality of quantity 6 (aequalitas quantitatis ). That material, struck with a public design ( forma ), offers use ( usus ) and ownership ( dominium ) not so much by its substance (ex substantia ) as by its quantity ( ex quantitate ), so that no longer are the things exchanged both called wares but one of them is termed the price (pretium ). As Sargent and Velde (p. 94) point out, the Romanist glossators were especially troubled by the phrase “not so much by its substance as by its quantity” and were forced to twist its meaning in order to fit their preconceptions.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • TALMUDIC STUDIES Ephraim Kanarfogel
    chapter 22 TALMUDIC STUDIES ephraim kanarfogel TRANSITIONS FROM THE EAST, AND THE NASCENT CENTERS IN NORTH AFRICA, SPAIN, AND ITALY The history and development of the study of the Oral Law following the completion of the Babylonian Talmud remain shrouded in mystery. Although significant Geonim from Babylonia and Palestine during the eighth and ninth centuries have been identified, the extent to which their writings reached Europe, and the channels through which they passed, remain somewhat unclear. A fragile consensus suggests that, at least initi- ally, rabbinic teachings and rulings from Eretz Israel traveled most directly to centers in Italy and later to Germany (Ashkenaz), while those of Babylonia emerged predominantly in the western Sephardic milieu of Spain and North Africa.1 To be sure, leading Sephardic talmudists prior to, and even during, the eleventh century were not yet to be found primarily within Europe. Hai ben Sherira Gaon (d. 1038), who penned an array of talmudic commen- taries in addition to his protean output of responsa and halakhic mono- graphs, was the last of the Geonim who flourished in Baghdad.2 The family 1 See Avraham Grossman, “Zik˙atah shel Yahadut Ashkenaz ‘el Erets Yisra’el,” Shalem 3 (1981), 57–92; Grossman, “When Did the Hegemony of Eretz Yisra’el Cease in Italy?” in E. Fleischer, M. A. Friedman, and Joel Kraemer, eds., Mas’at Mosheh: Studies in Jewish and Moslem Culture Presented to Moshe Gil [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1998), 143–57; Israel Ta- Shma’s review essays in K˙ ryat Sefer 56 (1981), 344–52, and Zion 61 (1996), 231–7; Ta-Shma, Kneset Mehkarim, vol.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Jews, Gentiles, and the Modern Egalitarian Ethos
    Jews, Gentiles, and the Modern Egalitarian Ethos: Some Tentative Thoughts David Berger The deep and systemic tension between contemporary egalitarianism and many authoritative Jewish texts about gentiles takes varying forms. Most Orthodox Jews remain untroubled by some aspects of this tension, understanding that Judaism’s affirmation of chosenness and hierarchy can inspire and ennoble without denigrating others. In other instances, affirmations of metaphysical differences between Jews and gentiles can take a form that makes many of us uncomfortable, but we have the legitimate option of regarding them as non-authoritative. Finally and most disturbing, there are positions affirmed by standard halakhic sources from the Talmud to the Shulhan Arukh that apparently stand in stark contrast to values taken for granted in the modern West and taught in other sections of the Torah itself. Let me begin with a few brief observations about the first two categories and proceed to somewhat more extended ruminations about the third. Critics ranging from medieval Christians to Mordecai Kaplan have directed withering fire at the doctrine of the chosenness of Israel. Nonetheless, if we examine an overarching pattern in the earliest chapters of the Torah, we discover, I believe, that this choice emerges in a universalist context. The famous statement in the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5) that Adam was created singly so that no one would be able to say, “My father is greater than yours” underscores the universality of the original divine intent. While we can never know the purpose of creation, one plausible objective in light of the narrative in Genesis is the opportunity to actualize the values of justice and lovingkindness through the behavior of creatures who subordinate themselves to the will 1 of God.
    [Show full text]
  • Keter Shem Tov: a Study in the Entitling of Books, Here Limited to One Title Only
    Keter Shem Tov: A Study in the Entitling of Books, Here Limited to One Title Only Keter Shem Tov: A Study in the Entitling of Books, Here Limited to One Title Only[1] by Marvin J. Heller Entitling, naming books is, a fascinating subject. Why did the author call his book what he/she did? Why that name and not another? Hebrew books frequently have names resounding in meaning, but providing little insight into the contents of the book. This article explores the subject, focusing on one title only, Keter Shem Tov. That book-name is taken from a verse “the crown of a good name (Keter Shem Tov) excels them all (Avot 4:13). The article describes the varied books with that title, unrelated by author or subject, and why the author/publisher selected that title for the book. 1. Simeon said: there are three crowns: the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of royalty; but the crown of a good name (emphasis added, Keter Shem Tov) excels them all (Avot 4:13). “As a pearl atop a crown (keter), so are his good deeds fitting” (Israel Lipschutz, Zera Yisrael, Avot 4:13). Entitling, naming books, remains, is, a fascinating subject. Why did the author call his book what he/she did? Why that name and not another? Hebrew books since the Middle-Ages often have names resounding in meaning, but providing little insight into the contents of the book. A reader looking at the title of a book in another language, more often than not, is immediately aware of the book’s subject matter.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction of Rabbi Yosef Kapach to His Edition of Moses Maimonides
    Introduction of Rabbi Yosef Kapach to his edition of Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (translated by Michael J. Bohnen) Rabbi Kapach was the foremost editor of the works of Maimonides. Born in Yemen in 1917, he used ancient manuscripts to restore the text of the Mishneh Torah. Several fascinating articles about Rabbi Kapach can be found at www.chayas.com/rabbi.htm The following is a summary and translation of his 20 page Introduction to his edition of the Mishneh Torah. Translator’s Summary My Work. When in my youth I studied the Mishneh Torah with my grandfather of blessed memory, most people used printed books, each with his own edition, but my grandfather and several of the others had manuscripts which were several hundred years old, each scroll of a different age. The errors and deficiencies of the printed texts were well known. The changes that Maimonides made over time in the Commentary on the Mishnah, after completing the Mishneh Torah, he then inserted in the Mishnah Torah. These are all found in our manuscripts, but some are not found in the printed texts. The Jews of Yemen are a conservative group. They would never have presumed to "correct" or "amend" a text that came into their hands, and certainly not the works of Maimonides. However, the Mishneh Torah was subjected to severe editing by the printers and various editors who made emendations of style, language, the structure of sentences and the division of halachot, to the extent that there is hardly any halacha that has not been emended. In this edition of ours, we are publishing, with God’s help, the words of Maimonides in full as we received them from his blessed hand.
    [Show full text]
  • Apostates and More, Part 2,The History Behind the Ashkenazi
    Apostates and More, Part 2 Apostates and More, Part 2 Marc B. Shapiro Continued from here 1. Another apostate was Rabbi Nehemiah ben Jacob ha-Kohen of Ferrara, who was an important supporter of R. Moses Hayyim Luzzatto during the controversy about him.[1]Here is the the final page of the haskamah he wrote in 1729 for R. Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea’s Emunat Hakhamim. R. Isaac Lampronte, in a halakhic discussion in hisPahad Yitzhak, refers to Nehemiah, but not by name.[2] He calls him .In R .אחד מן החכמים רך בשנים אשר אחרי כן הבאיש ריחו כנודע Hananel Nepi and R. Mordechai Samuel Ghirondi, Toldot Gedolei Yisrael (Trieste, 1853), p. 229, they write about Obviously, “Ishmaelite” is a .שאח”כ נעשה ישמעאלי :Nehemiah code word for Christian.[3] The story reported by Samuel David Luzzatto is that Nehemiah used to go to prostitutes, and when the rabbis found out about this they removed the rabbinate from him. Too embarrassed to remain in the Jewish community, Nehemiah apostatized.[4] Cecil Roth cites another Italian source that Nehemiah converted so he could marry a Christian woman. Unfortunately, his son and three daughters apostatized together with him (his wife had apparently already died).[5] Another apostate who should be mentioned is Michael Solomon Alexander (1799-1844), first Anglican bishop in Jerusalem. Before his apostasy, Alexander was a rabbi.[6] Rabbi Abraham Romano of Tunis also became an apostate. He converted at the end of the seventeenth century when R. Meir Lombrozo was appointed a dayan in his place. After Romano converted, he became well known as a Islamic preacher, and after his death his tomb was venerated by Muslims.
    [Show full text]
  • Jews, Christians, and Art in the Medieval Marketplace
    Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations REVIEW Josef Shatzmiller Cultural Exchange: Jews, Christians, and Art in the Medieval Marketplace (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2013) Merav Schnitzer, Tel Aviv University “Moments of Grace” and “exciting results” were the words rightly chosen by Josef Shatzmiller to describe the main find- ings of his fascinating book, Cultural Exchange: Jews, Christians, and Art in the Medieval Marketplace (p. 160). Shatzmiller sought to uncover new avenues of cultural ex- change between Jews and Christian in the high and late Middle Ages (ca. 1230 – 1450) in Germany, France, England, northern Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, and Sicily. By studying the market of pawnbrokers, Shatzmiller discov- ered a deep encounter between Jews and Christians. It was a sphere in which Jews were willing to adopt the aesthetic values of Christian society, even when those were in contrast with ha- lakha (Jewish law). Shatzmiller chose to rely in his study mainly on non-Jewish sources, rather than Jewish (halakhic) sources, as most of his predecessors did. Shatzmiller argues that for a deeper understanding of Jewish everyday life schol- ars must expand the scope of sources they use. In his study he uses a variety of sources, including archival texts (such as legal and administrative writings in Latin and vernacular languages) and material and artistic sources (such as illuminated manu- scripts and ritual objects, both Jewish and Christian). Shatzmiller describes a process of cultural assimilation in three main stages, with the market place as its first stage. The pos- session of Christian artifacts as pawns led Jews, as noted, to adopt the aesthetic values common in Christian society.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Catalogue
    F i n e J u d a i C a . printed booKs, manusCripts, Ceremonial obJeCts & GraphiC art K e s t e n b au m & C om pa n y thursday, nov ember 19th, 2015 K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art A Lot 61 Catalogue of F i n e J u d a i C a . BOOK S, MANUSCRIPTS, GR APHIC & CEREMONIAL A RT INCLUDING A SINGULAR COLLECTION OF EARLY PRINTED HEBREW BOOK S, BIBLICAL & R AbbINIC M ANUSCRIPTS (PART II) Sold by order of the Execution Office, District High Court, Tel Aviv ——— To be Offered for Sale by Auction, Thursday, 19th November, 2015 at 3:00 pm precisely ——— Viewing Beforehand: Sunday, 15th November - 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm Monday, 16th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Tuesday, 17th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Wednesday, 18th November - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm No Viewing on the Day of Sale This Sale may be referred to as: “Sempo” Sale Number Sixty Six Illustrated Catalogues: $38 (US) * $45 (Overseas) KestenbauM & CoMpAny Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art . 242 West 30th street, 12th Floor, new york, NY 10001 • tel: 212 366-1197 • Fax: 212 366-1368 e-mail: [email protected] • World Wide Web site: www.Kestenbaum.net K est e n bau m & C o m pa ny . Chairman: Daniel E. Kestenbaum Operations Manager: Jackie S. Insel Client Relations: Sandra E. Rapoport, Esq. Printed Books & Manuscripts: Rabbi Eliezer Katzman Rabbi Dovid Kamenetsky (Consultant) Ceremonial & Graphic Art: Abigail H.
    [Show full text]
  • Eliezer Ben Nathan
    Eliezer ben Nathan Eliezer (pronounced ell-ee-AY-zar) ben Nathan, a Jewish poet and writer, was born around 1090, several years before the beginning of the First Crusade. He studied the Talmud, a book of writings about the Jewish Torah, under some of the most famous Jewish scholars of the Middle Ages. His poetry included prayers for special Sabbaths, poems for Jewish services, and poems that expressed his sadness over the many Jews killed in the First Crusade. His chronicle The Persecutions of 1096 told about the violence that occurred in the European Jewish communities of Speyer, Worms, Mainz, and Cologne. It is one of only three Jewish accounts of the First Crusade that have survived. Stop Here and Discuss • Who was Eliezer ben Nathan? • What is The Persecutions of 1096? • Why do you think The Persecutions of 1096 is important? The Persecutions of 1096 was probably written many years after 1096, and Eliezer may have relied on other sources besides his own experience in writing it. With passionate language, he describes how the European crusaders stole from the Jews, destroyed their homes, and murdered anyone who refused to convert to Christianity and be baptized. He writes that the crusaders stole the Torah, stomped on it in the mud outside Jewish homes, tore the scroll, and made fun of the Torah itself, all the while laughing, celebrating, and saying, “This is the day that we hoped for.” Stop Here and Discuss • What does The Persecutions of 1096 describe? • What did crusaders do to Jews? • According to Eliezer, how did crusaders react to what they were doing? One of the most shocking parts of Eliezer’s account of the crusades is his description of Jews who killed their children and themselves rather than be forced to give up their religion and convert to Christianity or be killed by the Christian crusaders.
    [Show full text]
  • Abd Ar-Rahman III 188 Abhayagiri Monastery 335 Abraham 357
    Index Abd ar-Rahman III 188 Baghdad 189, 192, 291, 294, 299, 354, 360 Abhayagiri monastery 335 Bahāʾal-Dīn ibn Shaddād 3 Abraham 357 Baoyu 90 Abraham ibn Ezra 194–197, 198 n. 33 Baraz, Daniel 211 Abu Zayd 307–308 Basse-Loire 208 Acre 303 Baudri of Dol 300 Adam 122–123, 130 Baumgarten, Elisheva 56 Aelred of Rievaulx, 141 Beaulieu 214 Aggabodhi V 337 n. 48 Beauvais 222–223, 227 Al-Andalus (Andalusia) 4, 11, 185, 192–198, Bede the Venerable 120–122, 124–126, 128 304 Belgium 208 Al-Azmeh, Aziz 9, 13–14, 16, 348–366 Benedict of Aniane 219 Al-Basāsīrī 360 Berlin 1 Al-Bukhārī 354 Berry 217 Alcuin of York 135–136, 219, 223 Bischoff, Bernhard 227 Alexandria 308 n. 38 Bley, Matthias 11, 16, 203–239 Alfonso, Esperanza 189, 193 Blois 217 Al-Ghazālī 362 Bombay see Mumbai Allony, Nehemia 187 Bonn 59 Al-Malik al-Kāmil 315 Bretfeld, Sven 13, 16, 320–347 Alphonse III of Asturias 226, 227 n. 106 Bristol 58 Althusser, Louis 350 Brittany 208 Amalar of Metz 135, 137 Brunettin, Giordano 313 Andalusia see al-Andalus Bruno of Asti 129–130 Andernach 58 Buddhabhadra 174 Angelo Clareno 313–316 Buddhaghosa 14, 320, 322–326, 328–335, Angelo di Castro 4, 5 344 Angenendt, Arnold 25–27, 30, 36, 118–119, 142 Calderoli, Roberto 1 Angers 210–211, 217 Cao Xueqin 102, 105 Anselm of Canterbury 139 Carrithers, Michael 330 Anselm of Laon 140 Cecilia of Spello 304 Anthony of Padua 304 Chablis 217 Antiochus IV Epiphanes 206, 278 Chanah 278 Anurādhapura 331 n.
    [Show full text]
  • Forsaken HBI Series on Jewish Women
    Forsaken HBI Series on Jewish Women Shulamit Reinharz, General Editor Sylvia Barack Fishman, Associate Editor Th e HBI Series on Jewish Women, created by the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, publishes a wide range of books by and about Jewish women in diverse contexts and time periods. Of interest to scholars and the educated public, the HBI Series on Jewish Women fi lls major gaps in Jewish tudiesS and in Women and Gender Studies as well as their intersection. Th e HBI Series on Jewish Women is supported by a generous gift from Dr. Laura S. Schor. For the complete list of books that are available in this series, please see www.upne.com Sharon Faye Koren, Forsaken: Th e Menstruant in Medieval Jewish Mysticism Sonja M. Hedgepeth and Rochelle G. Saidel, editors, Sexual Violence against Jewish Women during the Holocaust Julia R. Lieberman, editor, Sephardi Family Life in the Early Modern Diaspora Derek Rubin, editor, Promised Lands: New Jewish American Fiction on Longing and Belonging Carol K. Ingall, editor, Th e Women Who Reconstructed American Jewish Education: 1910–1965 Gaby Brimmer and Elena Poniatowska, Gaby Brimmer: An Autobiography in Th ree Voices Harriet Hartman and Moshe Hartman, Gender and American Jews: Patt erns in Work, Education, and Family in Contemporary Life Dvora E. Weisberg, Levirate Marriage and the Family in Ancient Judaism Ellen M. Umansky and Dianne Ashton, editors, Four Centuries of Jewish Women’s Spirituality: A Sourcebook Carole S. Kessner, Marie Syrkin: Values Beyond the Self Ruth Kark, Margalit Shilo, and Galit Hasan-Rokem,
    [Show full text]
  • The Poetic Superstructure of the Babylonian Talmud and the Reader It Fashions
    The Poetic Superstructure of the Babylonian Talmud and the Reader It Fashions by Zvi Septimus A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Joint Doctor of Philosophy with Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley in Jewish Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Daniel Boyarin, Chair Professor David Henkin Professor Naomi Seidman Spring 2011 The Poetic Superstructure of the Babylonian Talmud and the Reader It Fashions Copyright 2011 All rights reserved by Zvi Septimus Abstract The Poetic Superstructure of the Babylonian Talmud and the Reader It Fashions by Zvi Septimus Doctor of Philosophy in Jewish Studies University of California, Berkeley Professor Daniel Boyarin, Chair This dissertation proposes a poetics and semiotics of the Bavli (Babylonian Talmud)—how the Bavli, through a complex network of linguistic signs, acts on its implied reader's attempt to find meaning in the text. In doing so, I advance a new understanding of how the Bavli was composed, namely as a book written by its own readers in the act of transmission. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Bavli scholarship focused on the role of the Stam (the collective term for those people responsible for the anonymous voice of the Bavli) in the construction of individual Bavli passages (sugyot). Stam theory details how sugyot were crafted out of pre-existing sources and how the Stam works to control those sources in the service of a particular worldview. This dissertation locates a different force at work in the construction of the Bavli as a single unified book, an authorship that is above and against the work of the Stam—a Superstam.
    [Show full text]
  • Fi N E Ju D a I
    F i n e Ju d a i C a . he b r e w pr i n t e d bo o K s , ma n u s C r i p t s , Gr a p h i C & Ce r e m o n i a l ar t K e s t e n b a u m & Co m p a n y th u r s d a y , ap r i l 2n d , 2009 K ESTENBAUM & COMPANY . Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art A Lot 38 Catalogue of F INE JUDAICA . PRINTED BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, CEREMONIAL & GRAPHIC ART Including: The Prague Hagadah, 1526 An Extraordinarily Fine Copy of Abraham ibn Ezra’s Commentary to the Torah, Naples, 1488 An Autograph Manuscript Signed by R. Yonassan Eybescheutz Governor Worthington’s Speech on the Maryland Test Act, Baltimore, 1824 Photographic Archive by Issacher Ber Ryback Selections from the Rare Book-Room of a College Library (Final Part) (Short-Title Index in Hebrew available upon request) ——— To be Offered for Sale by Auction, Thursday, 2nd April, 2009 at 3:00 pm precisely ——— Viewing Beforehand on: Sunday, 29th March - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Monday, 30th March - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Tuesday, 31st March - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Wednesday, 1st April - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm Thursday, 2nd April - 10:00 am - 2:30 pm Gallery-Talk with the Auction Expert: Tuesday, 31st March at 6:00 pm This Sale may be referred to as: “Merari” Sale Number Forty-Three Illustrated Catalogues: $35 (US) * $42 (Overseas) KESTENBAUM & COMPANY Auctioneers of Rare Books, Manuscripts and Fine Art .
    [Show full text]